A Progressive Third Party

[Edward theurj Berge]

With the realization that Sanders will probably not win the Democratic Party nomination, and that said establishment Party is corrupt beyond repair, there has been a spate of internet articles on what to do with the Sanders campaign machine. One option I hear frequently is to take all that momentum and organization and form a progressive third party, one that challenges both the establishment Democratic and Republican Parties. We've come to realize that the Democratic Party is too far gone to the dark side of corporate cronyism never to return to its own progressive roots. In the posts that follow I'll provide my jeremiad on this.

[Edward theurj Berge]

Robert Reich and Chris Hedges debate what's next for our political system. I used to be more on the Hedges side, now I'm with Reich. There is a big difference between Clinton and Trump, and Reich is right that at least we can build on the Sanders movement under her. Under Trump and the GOP it will be set back indefinitely if not irreparably. The Dem platform and Clinton's own proposals responded to Sanders' agenda; the GOP platform and Trump (for the most part) go in an entirely different direction. It is far from the same if either gets elected, Hedges' claim.

[Edward theurj Berge]

Here's Colbert's psychedelic vision brought on by a stale cheese steak of the Bernie Bros facing the inevitable.

[Ambo Suno]

**Instead, he talked about the Hillary Clinton only he knows. Summoning his charm and nostalgia-factor, Bill said that the Hillary that people don't trust or don't like is not real. It's a "cartoon," created by Republicans, he said.


"Cartoons are two-dimensional, they're easy to absorb. Life in the real world is complicated and real change is hard and a lot of people even think it's boring," he said. "Good for you because earlier today you nominated the real one.** [from an nbc article - http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/2016-conventions/democrats-make-hi...]

I like Bill Clinton's simple way of conveying a sense of what Lakoff and others try to educate us about the workings of the brain-mind-culture. I think that the ways in which we reduce reality and truth are, of course, almost ubiquitous and even Bernie has oft become benignly, seeming, cartoonified such that his followers and progressives more generally often lack sufficient perspective.

Hey, it may be a life's work for most of us, I'll say, to not think in cartoonlike reducings and reifyings.

[Ambo Suno]

Starting at around 35 minutes into Bill Clinton's speech at the DNC he leads into mention of creating a cartoon image that can be defeated. Here on IMPS, there has been a languaging of a distinction between what is real and actual. Bill is also trying to convey the application and misapplication of such mental proclivities for confusion about what is what.

His speech is very good in a stylistically relatively low key way. He lays out the storyline of real work and action that Hillary has performed most of her adult life. Hillary's energy, character, and intensity of thinking and action are persuasively, believably, brought home in the storyline.

He started out talking about his meeting her in law school, courting her, and coming to want to marry her. Casting a big and nervous-making shadow over that story for me, and I'm guessing for many others, was the huge scandal of his sexual exploits and, I'll say, energy and sexual and emotional immaturity. The imagery around my ideals of 'love', morality, trust & betrayal played a little havoc in my moral machinery, and I'm guessing many other people's, some with even more insistent early life moralistic imprints. My prurient and perhaps quasi-lascivious imagination blundered and tinkered with my capacity to allow some of the obvious beauty in their 'love' and life-long friendship.

I want to respect the perseverance of his speech and speaking as he got past the glitches of many listeners and into this genuine seeming affection for who Hillary is.

He brought forward the phrase "change-maker" that seems apropos, now, having laid out the ground work for its accuracy so well. I think this was a wonderful speech.


https://youtu.be/8RchVnIn_-Y



Ambo Suno said:

**Instead, he talked about the Hillary Clinton only he knows. Summoning his charm and nostalgia-factor, Bill said that the Hillary that people don't trust or don't like is not real. It's a "cartoon," created by Republicans, he said.


"Cartoons are two-dimensional, they're easy to absorb. Life in the real world is complicated and real change is hard and a lot of people even think it's boring," he said. "Good for you because earlier today you nominated the real one.** [from an nbc article - http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/2016-conventions/democrats-make-hi...]

I like Bill Clinton's simple way of conveying a sense of what Lakoff and others try to educate us about the workings of the brain-mind-culture. I think that the ways in which we reduce reality and truth are, of course, almost ubiquitous and even Bernie has oft become benignly, seeming, cartoonified such that his followers and progressives more generally often lack sufficient perspective.

Hey, it may be a life's work for most of us, I'll say, to not think in cartoonlike reducings and reifyings.

[Ambo Suno]

Michael Bloomberg the ex-mayor of New York asked other 'independents' to join him in voting for Hillary Clinton.

At this democratic convention he made many pithy distinctions between Donald and Hillary. One that got some amused noisy chatter, chuckle and rumble going was made obliquely, and the audience got it. He said, let's elect a sane, effective candidate.

He said many direct things about Donald's dangerousness. He also said that he knows a con when he sees one.

https://youtu.be/9n3vuf-rbd8

[Some of you may know already that Barack Obama delivered another fine speech.]

[DavidM58]

Bill McKibben - 350 Action <[e-mail]> Today at 9:08 AM

It's time for accountability The Democratic and Republican conventions are history, and the epochal 2016 election is now before us. My general theory is less talk and more action, so I hope you’ll join me in taking this climate pledge, one that will power our efforts into the fall.

But since I’ve got the microphone, maybe I’ll say a few more words.

One is, Trump is truly bad news. His insistence that global warming is a Chinese manufactured hoax, and his declaration that he will abrogate the Paris treaty mean that he’s as much a nihilist on climate change as he is on anything else. In fact, no major party candidate since the start of the global warming era has been as bad on this issue, not even close. He's also terrifying for many other obvious reasons.

Second is, it was a little hard for me to watch Bernie’s bittersweet speech to the Democratic convention. He’s my Vermont neighbor (where 350.org was born), and he was my candidate, and he talked about climate change as no presidential candidate ever has before, declaring forthrightly that it was the greatest problem the planet faced. I wish he’d won.

But his powerful showing meant, among other things, that he had a significant hand in writing the Democratic party platform for 2016. (In fact, he named me as one of fifteen platform writers. Did I say we were neighbors?) And though it’s far from perfect it is by far the strongest party platform on climate issues Americans have ever seen.

This is my third thought. In four years we’ve gone from an ‘all of the above’ energy strategy to one that explicitly favors sun and wind over natural gas. The platform promises a Keystone-style test for all federal policy: if it makes global warming worse, it won’t be built. And it calls for an emergency climate summit in the first hundred days of the new administration. All those changes are the direct result of your work, showing up to demand action over many months and years.

Last night Hillary Clinton pledged to enact that platform, and she said “we have to hold every country accountable to their commitments, including ourselves.”

“Accountability” is the right word. Will this platform mean anything more than words? That actually depends on you. If we vote as climate voters this fall — and if we then show up to demand that those promises are kept — this could turn out to be a ground-breaking political season. That’s why we need you signed on to this pledge, and lined up to get out the vote and do the other chores of an election.

But remember: election day is just one day in the political calendar. The other 364 count just as much.

Our job is not to elect a savior. Our job is to elect someone we can effectively pressure. And as tough as the work of this election will be -- the real work starts on Wednesday November 9th.

That’s how it seems to me, anyway. There’s plenty to be scared of this election season, and plenty to hope for. And most of all there’s plenty of work to be done.

Bill McKibben for 350 Action

[Ambo Suno]

Yeah, but she's our bitch! Bill Maher - to Hillary, embrace the shadow. Hah!

https://youtu.be/7hBnwPycFUQ

[Ambo Suno]

On a different note :)

"Hillary" is a polished, pithy, I find believable storyline tribute to a tough yet caring woman, so it seems to me.

12 minutes, with Morgan Freeman's mellifluous vocal narration and striking photos. Touching.

https://youtu.be/sUV4Ha_Tf_4



Ambo Suno said:

Yeah, but she's our bitch! Bill Maher - to Hillary, embrace the shadow. Hah!

https://youtu.be/7hBnwPycFUQ

[Edward theurj Berge]

Loved that New Rule.

Ambo Suno said:

Yeah, but she's our bitch! Bill Maher - to Hillary, embrace the shadow. Hah!

https://youtu.be/7hBnwPycFUQ

[Edward theurj Berge]

Amen brother Bill. I'm with you on our responsibility in this. Pledge signed.

DavidM58 said:

Bill McKibben - 350 Action <[e-mail]> Today at 9:08 AM

[Edward theurj Berge]

This article shows Sanders' practicality in the face of what we've got instead of what we should have. We can still work for the latter, a long-term project, while facing the realities of the present.

“I don't know the leadership of the Green Party, but I respect what they're trying to do. They're focusing on very, very important issues. But I think right now — what is it, three, four months before an election — you're gonna end up having a choice. Either Hillary Clinton is going to become president, or Donald Trump. If we were in Europe right now, in Germany or elsewhere, the idea of coalition politics of different parties coming together — you've got a left party, you've got a center-left party, coming together against the center-right party. That's not unusual. We don't have that. We have and have had [two parties] for a very long period of time — and I know a little bit about this, as the longest serving independent member of Congress.”

[Ambo Suno]

Trump's Twitter-only insult list is amazing - he's been a busy boy communicating with the American and world public. Hah. Like the proverbial broken clock, it seems right twice a day. He does seem to have a knack for finding vulnerable spots almost everywhere. He coulda been a comedian. What character.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/01/28/upshot/donald-trump-t...